The present invention relates generally to a cleaning device for ink wiper, and more particularly to a cleaning device mounted in an office machine such as an ink jet printer for cleaning the ink wiper. When the ink wiper is reciprocally moved, the cleaning device cleans off the ink remaining on the ink wiper.
A conventional ink jet printer has a printing head arranged in a position above a paper-delivering path by a set height. The printing head is reciprocally movable in a direction normal to the paper-delivering path. The printing head serves to jet ink onto papers to form characters or pictures.
In general, the printing head includes multiple nozzles for jetting ink. When the nozzles repeatedly jet ink onto a paper, some ink drops will stagnate around the nozzles and eventually become solid sediments. The solid sediments will partially clog the nozzles to change the ink-jetting direction. This will affect the printing quality.
Various types of cleaning devices have been developed for solving the problem of stagnation of ink drops around the nozzles. For example, Japanese Patent Nos. JP2003-63021, JP2-113949 and JP5-92576 respectively disclose cleaning devices including brush and wiper mechanisms drivable by rotational driving units. The brush and wiper mechanisms serve to pass through lower sides of the nozzles and once or twice back and forth wipe up the nozzles from the stagnant ink drops.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,168,257 B1 and 5,440,331 disclose otherwise designed cleaning devices. The cleaning device includes a bracket and a slide rack on which a wiper is mounted. The bracket has an inclined rail. The slide rack is slidable along the rail between different positions at different heights. When the slide rack slides along the rail, the wiper wipes off the ink drops stagnating on the nozzles.
The slide rack has a projecting pin slidably positioned in the rail. When the printing head moves toward the wiper, the slide rack is pushed and the projecting pin is moved along the rail to another position at another height. Simultaneously, the slide rack and the wiper are moved to another position at another height to wipe off the ink drops stagnating on the nozzles or cap the nozzles of the printing head.
When the wiper wipes off the ink drops stagnating on the nozzles, the ink will flow along the wiper into an ink-collecting case under the wiper. However, some ink will remain on the wiper and eventually dry and solidify. This will affect the ink-wiping effect provided by the wiper.
It is therefore tried by the applicant to provide a cleaning device for the wiper. No additional driving unit (such as motor) is needed for driving the cleaning device. When the wiper moves, the cleaning device cleans off the ink stagnating on the wiper. Therefore, the wiper is prevented from being stained with the ink so as to minimize the deterioration of the ink-wiping effect of the wiper.